The Diabetic Hangover (Pitfalls of eating too much sugar)

The Diabetic Hangover

Before being diagnosed as a T2D, I would occasionally wake up feeling absolutely crap. Not just tired - properly rough. The kind of rough where you know straight away that something isn’t right. It felt exactly like a boozy hangover, even though I hadn’t touched a drop.

I’d sit on the side of the bed and struggle to open my eyes properly. My head felt thick and heavy, as though it had been stuffed with damp cotton wool overnight. I could hear what was going on around me. I could speak if I needed to. But actually getting myself upright was another matter entirely. Standing up felt like a major operation, and the grogginess was overwhelming. My body simply didn’t want to cooperate.

Walking downstairs became a genuine safety concern. I remember gripping the banister and moving very slowly and taking each step with care. It's a very worrying position, half-expecting my legs to give way. At the same time, my mind was racing with questions. What the hell is going on? Why do I feel like this? What's happening?

I knew it wasn’t an alcohol hangover. That much was certain. I hadn’t been drinking. In fact, I’d already given up alcohol by then, so there was no logical reason for me to feel that way.

And yet, the symptoms were spot on. Head fog. Weakness. Nausea. That horrible flattened feeling where everything feels muted and wrong. Exactly the same as a proper hangover after a heavy night.

Rather than listing the symptoms, because they were pretty much just like a normal hangover, it makes more sense to explain how I eventually worked out what the damn thing actually was.

The first time this happened, I’d assumed I’d caught a bug or picked up some kind of illness. Maybe a virus. Maybe my body was fighting something off. This was all well before my T2D diagnosis, so diabetes wasn’t even a consideration. It simply didn’t cross my mind.

At that point in my life, I was still stuffing copious amounts of sweet stuff into myself without giving it much thought. Biscuits, cakes, chocolate, sugary snacks — all the usual culprits. My diet, if I’m being honest, was pretty unhealthy. But it felt normal at the time. It was just how I ate.

It took about a couple of weeks for a pattern to emerge. After a particularly big binge on sugary food, I’d wake up the following day feeling dreadful. Not “a bit off,” but properly unwell. And it wasn’t random. It happened again and again.

Once I’d clocked that pattern, curiosity and concern kicked in. Following one of these episodes, I went searching on the Interweb. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for, just typing symptoms and hoping something would click. That’s when I stumbled across a term I’d never heard before: Diabetic Hangover.

I started reading. And the more I read, the more uncomfortable it became - because it all sounded very familiar. The symptoms closely matched my own. Almost word for word.

That was the moment the penny dropped. I finally had an answer. I hadn’t been imagining it. I hadn’t been “run down.” I’d effectively self-diagnosed.

Go on then - ask the obvious question.

“Did you cut out the sugar to stop this from happening?”

The honest answer is no. Not really. Not in any meaningful way. I might have delayed things for a day or two. I might have promised myself I’d behave. But I didn’t stop. However hard I tried, I couldn’t eliminate the bingeing altogether.

I always gave in.

One binge followed another, usually with a quiet justification attached. Just this once. I’ll be better tomorrow. It won’t hurt.

I’m going to use a term here that I’ve used before - and I’ll be using it a lot.

Did you know I have a sugar addiction?

At the time, that idea hadn’t even occurred to me. Drug addiction? Yes. Smoking addiction? Of course. Alcohol addiction? Absolutely. Those made sense. You could see them. You could name them.

But a sugar addiction?

No. Not in my world. Not back then.